Over 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians were thought to have originated the battlefield practice of marking the location of the commander and rallying the troops with a standard.

The prominent standard employed in ancient Roman was a gold eagle, or aquila, which was considered more than just symbolic. In fact, a lost standard was deemed incredibly grave – and inauspicious. While no physical examples of legionary eagles have survived, their ghost recently walked the runway at the Valentino Fall 2015 Haute Couture show. A gold eagle clutching a red velvet ribbon adorned the collection’s first look, flanked by an eyepopping, uber-glam gold necklace designed by Alessandro Gaggio. “My subjects are enigmatic creatures suspended between the macabre and irony,” he notes. “Every piece is a wearable expression of an imaginary and surreal world of a either a happy or sad story, whatever it might be.”

Or, in the case of this gorgeous Valentino outing: decadent as decadent can be.

– Lesley Scott

This post pertains to the Supremium fashion tribe – spendy, style-conscious fashionistas that enjoy jetsetting, globetrotting and shopping their way across the globe. For more of my posts about the Supremiums, CLICK HERE. To learn more about each of fashion’s four mega-tribes that I track, START HERE.